Align or justify text

Text
can be aligned with one or both edges (or insets) of
a text frame. Text is said to be justified when it
is aligned with both edges. You can choose to justify all text in
a paragraph excluding the last line (Justify Left or Justify Right),
or you can justify text in a paragraph including the last line (Justify
All). When you have only a few characters on the last line, you
may want to use a special end-of-story character and create a flush
space.

Justify Left (left) and Justify All (right)

Note:

When
you justify all lines of text and you are using the Adobe Paragraph Composer,
InDesign shifts text to ensure that the paragraph has consistent
text density and is visually appealing. You can fine-tune spacing
in justified text.

When you set center or justify
for text in a frame grid, the text will no longer align exactly
with the grid. You can also specify paragraph alignment for all
the paragraphs in the frame grid.

Select text.

Click one of the Alignment buttons (Align Left, Align
Center, Align Right, Left Justify, Center Justify, Right Justify
and Full Justify) in the Paragraph panel or Control panel.

(Optional) Click Align Towards Spine or Align Away From
Spine.

When you apply Align Towards Spine to a paragraph, text
on a left-hand page is right-aligned, but when the same text flows
onto (or if the frame is moved to) a right-hand page, it becomes
left aligned. Similarly, when you apply Align Away From Spine to
a paragraph, text on a left-hand page is left aligned, while text
on a right-hand page is right aligned.

In vertical frames, aligning to
or away from the spine has no effect, since text alignment is parallel
to the spine direction.

If you want the left side of a line of
text to be left-aligned and the right side to be right-aligned,
position the insertion point where you want to right-align the text, press
Tab, and then right-align the rest of the line.

Align paragraphs to a baseline
grid

The baseline grid represents the leading
for body text in a document. You can use multiples of this leading
value for all elements of the page to ensure that text always lines
up between columns and from page to page. For example, if the body
text in your document has 12‑point leading, you could give your
heading text 18‑point leading and add 6 points of space before the
paragraphs that follow the headings.

Using a baseline grid
ensures consistency in the location of text elements on a page.
You can adjust the leading for the paragraph to ensure that its
baselines align to the page’s underlying grid. This is useful if
you want the baselines of text in multiple columns or adjacent text
frames to align. Change settings for the baseline grid by using
the Grids section of the Preferences dialog box.

You can also
align only the first line of a paragraph to the baseline grid, allowing the
rest of the lines to follow the specified leading values.

Create paragraphs that span or
split columns

You can make a paragraph span across multiple columns in a text frame to create a straddle head effect. You can choose whether a paragraph spans all columns or a specified number of columns. When a paragraph is set to span across columns in a multicolumn text frame, any text before the spanning paragraph becomes balanced as a result.

You can also split a paragraph into multiple columns within the same text frame.

Paragraph spanning and splitting multiple columns

A.
Heading that spans columns B.
Split
column

Span a paragraph across columns

Place the insertion point inside the paragraph.

You
can also make this feature part of a paragraph style, such as a
heading style.

Choose Span Columns from the Control panel menu or a Paragraph
panel menu.

Choose Span Columns from the Paragraph Layout menu.

Choose the number of columns you want the paragraph to span
from the Span menu. Choose All if you want the paragraph to span
across all the columns.

To add extra space before or after the span paragraph, specify
Space Before Span and Space After Span values, and then click OK.

Split a paragraph into columns

Place the insertion point inside the paragraph.

You
can also make this feature part of a paragraph style, such as a
heading style.

Choose Span Columns from the Control panel menu or a Paragraph
panel menu.

Choose Split Columns from the Paragraph Layout menu.

Specify the following options, and then click OK:

Sub-columns

Choose the number of columns you want the split the paragraph
into.

Space Before Split / Space After Split

Add space before or after the split paragraph.

Inside Gutter

Determine the space between the split paragraphs.

Outside Gutter

Determine the space between the outside of the split paragraphs
and the margins.

Align or justify text vertically
within a text frame

You
can align or distribute lines of text in a frame along its vertical
axis to help keep type vertically consistent among frames and their columns.

You can align text to the top, center,
or bottom of the frame using each paragraph’s leading and paragraph
spacing values. You can also justify text vertically, which evenly
spaces lines regardless of their leading and paragraph spacing values.

Vertical justification—Bottom (left) and Justify (right)

Vertical
text alignment and justification is calculated from the baseline
positions of each line of text in the frame. Keep the following
in mind as you adjust vertical alignment:

The top of the frame is defined as the baseline of the first line of top-aligned text. The First Baseline Offset option in the Text Frame Options dialog box affects this value.

The bottom of the frame is defined as the baseline of the last line of bottom-aligned text. Footnote text is not justified.

When the Align to Baseline Grid option is applied to paragraphs with Top, Center, or Bottom alignment, all lines will be aligned to the baseline grid. With the Justified option, only the first and last lines will be aligned to the baseline grid.

If you adjust a text frame’s Top or Bottom Inset values in the Text Frame Options dialog box, you change the location of the first or last baseline, respectively.

Do one of the following:

With the Selection tool, select a text
frame.

With the Type tool , click
in a text frame.

Choose Object > Text Frame Options.

In the Vertical Justification section of the Text Frame Options
dialog box, choose one of the following options in the Align menu:

To vertically align text down from the
top of the frame, choose Top. (This is the default setting.)

To center lines of text in the frame, choose Center.

To vertically align lines of text up from the bottom
of the frame, choose Bottom.

To evenly distribute lines of text vertically between
the top and bottom of the frame, choose Justify.

If you choose Justify and you want to prevent the leading
value from becoming disproportionately larger than the paragraph
spacing value, specify a Paragraph Spacing Limit value. The space
between paragraphs is expanded up to the value you specify; if the
text still doesn’t fill the frame, the space between lines is adjusted
until the frame is filled. The paragraph spacing limit value is
applied in addition to the Space Before or Space After values entered on
the Paragraph panel.

Paragraph spacing limit set to zero (left) and 1 pica (right)

Note:

Be
careful about vertically justifying multi-column text frames. If
the last column contains only a few lines, too much white space
may appear between the lines.

Click OK.

An easy way to adjust the Paragraph Spacing
Limit value is to select Preview, and then click the up or down
arrow next to the Paragraph Spacing Limit value until paragraph
spacing appears to be balanced with leading.